Training in Gibraltar
The 2016 IBIA convention in Gibraltar was a week filled with activity. Besides the Convention Programme, two industrial visits and the excellent networking events provided by our sponsors, we ran three days of training events.
On the Monday, there was a seminar on Mass Flow Metering covering the technology (courtesy of Claudia Beumer of Emerson), the real life performance of MFM’s (from Board Member Michael Green or Intertek ShipCare) and the development and application of the Singapore metering procedures (from Simon Neo of the IBIA Singapore secretariat). It was followed by a demonstration and explanation of the Electronic documentation developed by Vortex (IBIA members Marc Gawthrop and Jeff Mildner). This event was well attended by 24 delegates and featured a lively and informative Q&A session.
On Tuesday, IBIA board member Nigel Draffin presented an introduction to Bunkering and Shipping for the Gibraltar Port Operators Association (GPOA), covering all aspects of shipping, how each sector of shipping interacts with bunkering and the likely impact of the new regulatory and technical challenges. John Ghio of Gibraltar Port Authority (GPA) gave a presentation on the way that the GPA operations team was organised and how it interacts with the GPOA members. With 22 delegates and a full syllabus the day raised lots of questions from the GPOA members attending.
On Thursday, there was a special Price Risk seminar which looked in depth at hedging techniques and the use of both “Over the Counter” solutions and the use of Futures Exchange contracts. The seminar was led by Nigel Draffin and was sponsored by CSC and ADM who were also Convention sponsors. We had 12 delegates, from the sponsors and their client companies. I am not sure how we managed it but we packed a lot into the afternoon and received some very positive feedback.
These activities demonstrated IBIA’s commitment to training and the way we can add value to our events.
A big thank you to the presenters at all the courses and to the convention team who worked so hard to make it work.
Report by Nigel Draffin